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So I was talking to F.O.T.B The D-Man the other day, as we worked on stuff. I says: 'Hey. I feel like making a videoclip.'
D-man says 'oh gosh, we've gone past music videos'
Wham.

Ever had a moment where something just clicks into place. Daaaaaaaaaaamn.

The 1980's band-as-heroes-protagonists etc has gone out the window, except maybe for the heavily marketed legacy acts. videos from the 1980's look silly.

Since 2008 I have loaded around 700 videos to youtube, and made around 40 specific music videos.

I've done

• dance
• live action
• computer animation
• stop frame animation
• drama
• live actors
• on location stuff
• found footage
• real time recordings on a dock, at the beach, on eddy avenue at 3am. In a freakin observatory dome.

I've filmed the band live, on tour, you name it.

Add that to the seasons of Downtime and we have quite a catalogue.

I've pretty much made most of the types of things I wanted to have a crack at. So....what next?

The video isn't the marketing tool it used to be. At the moment, it's more about being a convenient way of sharing the songs so I might give myself a break and make a few low impact, easy clips to get some of the songs out there.

We stopped to take stock of what's going right and what's going wrong in our recording process so far.

Due to COVID, well...(gestures broadly)...things are different.

Historically, we have been able to roadtest songs at live shows or rehearsals.

Between "everything" and "everything else", live testing is not happening and it is taking some adjustment to get used to recording in layers, rather than all together.

Our recording gear, some 'reasonably priced' input devices are working a treat, as is our Digital Audio Workstation, in this case Reaper (as suggested by F.O.T.B Michael L. )

Friend of the band Pete D.'s suggestion of using the new Plugin approach to amps etc is also working well.

What we're missing is monitoring and playing 'together' (apparently I get a discount on quotation marks this week).

This has meant going back and forth on stuff that normally would have been worked out during rehearsal or gigging.

I have some testing to see if I can run multiple USB audio devices (low probability of success).

Using our handy dandy excel sheet, it became apparent that all the stuff we recorded together at Coggers place is now in mixing or final mixing. All the stuff that we recorded in The Cooler/Backyard is still pending.

On the plus side, the change in recording process is consistent with our historical approach - every album is its own trip. In this case, the songs are more complex and we're worrying less about reproduce-ability on stage, which has always been a key thing for Mr Wizard.

Right now, what the heck, we're just going for it, which is leading to some mutation. Once again, consistent with our preferred approach.

And as a tech nerd, new buttons? BUTTONS!!!



Monitoring (listening to the playback for recording) has proven to be the biggest hurdle and I am doing my danged-est to avoid buying Yet More Gear 'cos part of this album concept was to do it El Cheapo. Well sort of. We're still getting things mastered so there's that. 

Borrowing gear, cobbling bits and pieces together and doing it on Zero Budget was sort of the aim. As the way we make music changes, some things are easier to do than they have ever been. 

As we're confirming, the tech does not replace the need to work out our parts together, before we hit the studio. 

At the same time, we just recorded some stuff we wouldn't have done the same way, if we had been in studio.

I am gonna need like 5 guitarists on stage to make this sound right, live. Hmmm....

This week I'll try tech testing and re-engineering and we'll see if we can make this work with what we have, otherwise I'll be gear hunting or maybe we might even need to consider....a....studio (oooh)....nah. LOL. We'll figure this out.

Thanks to our Cellar Dwellers and Friends Of The Band for supporting us as we get it done. Support the album here: www.paypal.me/stormcellarband

Our of all the creative skills I have absorbed over time, the most powerful of all is...

the spreadsheet.

Wooot we're making progress. Crikey it feels slow. And then you check the sheet and the little boxes are starting to turn green. Green is good.

With our mate AJ helping us now, we've had a Project Fork. It means I may not be doing final mixes when I mix. AJ is picking the songs he wants to have a go with so my mixes are somewhere between a final and a maybe.

This is a good result. I mix it the way I think it ought to sound, AJ has a go with the songs he thinks he can enhance at a mixing level. He has waaaaay more sound toys and technical gubbins than I have. Somewhere between mixing and mastering, and if I am understanding the general vibe, this is the way things are being done these days. New times, new processes.

It's still going to be a few months to catch up to the material. Besides which, do 'Albums' even exist? Hmmm.

As soon as we get a break in the weather, more Downtime episodes. As soon as the gig situation opens up, some gigs. Until then, we're still at it. 

Donate to the album production here: www.paypal.me/stormcellarband

Our very own MJEb is out there flogging his book on podcasts!

Go you good thing!

After what seems like forever, I am pleased to report we're...back to where we were before sickness/covid lock down 3/disruption.

With the completion of the Rhythm parts for 'strange pleasures' we're now into Brand New stuff, which, if you are a regular reader, you will know is our Happy Place.

Once again, our focus is the discipline of finishing the work we have in front of us, even when it seems to take forever.

Some of the disruptions have been beneficial. The work flow on this album is verrrrry different to previous ones. Both in length of time it is taking us to complete, and in methodology.

Without Gigs to pay for the mixing, doing the mixing ourselves was the best way to go. Having someone with AJ's skills volunteer to mix a few is a great disruption. Thanks to our Cellar Dweller sponsors for helping us to get on with it.

Also, as we've been working on a few of these for a while, they have mutated whilst in production.

Usually, by the time we get the the studio the songs have been road tested at gigs. Ditto, when we get to the studio, the band preference is to get in, get it done and bugger off. Efficiency is prized by this crew.

With this extra time, the complexity of the tracks increased. Mr Wizard pointed out that one of the mutant variants now has 6 layers of guitars.



I can fairly say, without the slow down, we wouldn't have had the mutation. Thus, YAY!

This is still going to take a bit tho. 1 song released as a single, 4 in review with AJ he's likely to mix 2 of them so far, more in production and more in development.

Not all of them will wind up on the same album, I just can't tell which ones will be done first. In fact not all of them will make the grade. We'll see. 

Weather/illness has disrupted Downtime episodes so we're due to complete 4 episodes to finish season 3.

Good times in weird times :)

Stay safe out there.